Bookmarking pages in a browser

Question

Hello,
It appears that when JSF is used for web apps the url field (address) of the browser has a value that does not reflect the page on which the user is, thus making impossible to bookmark pages of the apps produced with JSF.
Has anyone else noticed the same behaviour or am I doing something wrong?
Thanks
SDJ

Answer 1

Yes, but it is not because of JSF. It is the nature of any framework (JSF, .NET,...) that utilizes a "Forward" versus a "Redirect". You can search this forum on how to change setting in XML file where navigation rules are stated to force a redirect instead of Forward (</redirect>). But keep in mind that will have a whole a lot of problems that go with it.
An easy way to relate to issue is to examine what happens when a an action is triggered on page (clicking on command button,...). The current page is posted back, an action or event is triggered on server and user is forwarded to a new page. All happens on the server and the browser has no idea that user is forwarded to a new page. As far as the Browser is concerned the current page is the one that triggered the action via a Post. In other words, the URL shown in Browser is always a step behind. Again you can force a redirect. But that will essentially cause a response to be rendered back and then a new request is initiated (doubling server trips). Moreover that will have limitations on passing arguments via request scope.
Bottom line, you are probably better off using a "Forward" instead of a "redirect" for many reasons (minimizing server trips, more flexibility in passing parameters via request scope, less dependency on browser types and settings...)
Sure for pure static pages that may be too much to live with. But in reality and if solution involves some real e-commerce functionality, bookmaking a page is not a practical mean. If a web transaction consists of more than one page in a forced navigation scenario, you probably would not want the user to jump directly into third step (bypassing first and second pages).
Even in a single page transaction, you still want the user to go through log on screen, perform authentication and then send user to target page.
This gets even more confusing if your application supports (Back, Forward or Refresh Browser actions). Let's say page (n) is displayed when user clicks on Back Browser button. In that case, the URL displayed by the Browser is that of page (n-1). Ironically it is the page that user meant to go back to when he or she pressed the Back Browser button. So actually page (n-2) is posted back and then user is forwarded to page (n-1). And now the user lands on page (n-1), but the URL displayed in Browser is that of page (n-2). Similarly for refresh and Forward Browser actions.
It could be very confusing until you understand the mechanism of navigational model caused by the combination of using (Post versus Get & Forward rather than Redirect).
Again you can change this default behavior, but you probably would not want to for many reasons (some I already listed above).
The best thing is to understand it and use this navigational model to your advantage when architecting your web solution.